kamiel [at] creativechoice.org

Everyday you are a little bit smarter. I try to catch up with you and come up with a suitable game. Today, I play ‘The odd one out’ with you. I mention four items and you tell me which one doesn’t belong in the list and why. You are good at it! We discovered that sometimes, there are multiple reasonings possible and there is no one correct answer. This is to show you that the ability to reason itself is more important than the answer, an important reminder when educational tests are reduced to multiple choice questions for the sake of efficiency. We begin with easy ones, like three colors and a chair, or any funny object that makes you laugh. Then we proceed to more ambiguous (remind me to teach you that word) series, such as

eyes

nose

buttocks

mouth

Buttocks, you say, and not only because you like to say that word. Because they are not on your face. This is indeed the predicament of most people, however according to some there are exceptions, usually involving people with a different political persuasion than their own.

What if I say the eyes are the odd one out, because they’re all made of skin and the eyes are not? I see you thinking (it is wonderful, can you believe me, to see your four year old child thinking!) about the reason. Which reason is more valid? How do you determine the oddest one out? Or can oddities not be compared to each other?